2. Introduction
The term pneumothorax was first coined by Itard,
a student of Laennec, in 1803
Laennec described the clinical picture of
pneumothorax in 1819
He described most pneumothoraces as occurring
in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis, although
he recognised that pneumothoraces also
occurred in otherwise healthy lungs, a condition
he described as “pneumothorax simple”
2
3. Introduction
3
The modern description of primary
spontaneous pneumothorax occurring
in otherwise healthy people was
provided by Kjaergard in 1932
Primary pneumothorax remains a
significant global problem
The incidence is 18-28/100 000 per
year for men and
1.2-6/100 000 per year for women
5. What is pneumothorax
5
Pneumothorax is defined as
presence of air or gas in the
pleural space
(OR)
air between the lung and chest wall,
in other term, air between the
visceral pleura and the parietal
pleura
6. Blebs and bullae are also known as
emphysema-like changes (ELCs)
The probable cause of pneumothorax
is rupture of an apical bleb or bulla
Because the compliance of blebs or
bullae in the apices is lower compared
with that of similar lesions situated in
the lower parts of the lungs
Pathophysiology
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7. 7
It is often hard to assess whether
bullae are the site of leakage, and
where the site of rupture of the
visceral pleura is
Smoking causes a 9-fold increase in
the relative risk of a pneumothorax in
females
A 22-fold increase in male smokers
With a dose-response relationship
between the number of cigarettes
smoked per day and occurrence of
Pathophysiology
